3rd Week of Great Lent v TUESDAY. Vespers.

Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars 

Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars. 2. She
has killed her beasts; she has mingled her wine in a bowl, and prepared
her table. 3. She has sent forth her servants, calling with a loud
proclamation to the feast, saying, 4. Who so is foolish, let him turn
aside to me: and to them that want understanding she says, 5. Come, eat
of my bread, and drink wine which I have mingled for you. 6. Leave
folly, that ye may reign for ever; and seek wisdom, and improve
understanding by knowledge. Tuesday in the Third Week of Great Lent- At
Vespers - Proverbs 9:1-6, from the selection Prov 8:32 - 9:11

Christ, he means, the wisdom and power of God the Father, hath builded
His house, i.e., His nature in the flesh derived from the Virgin, even
as he(John) hath said beforetime, "The Word became flesh, and dwelt
among us." As likewise the wise prophet testifies: Wisdom that was
before the world, and is the source of life, the infinite "Wisdom of
God, hath builded her house" by a mother who knew no man, -- to wit, as
He assumed the temple of the body. 

"And hath raised her seven pillars;" that is, the fragrant grace of the
all-holy Spirit, as Isaiah says: "And the seven spirits of God shall
rest upon Him," But others say that the seven pillars are the seven
divine orders which sustain the creation by His holy and inspired
teaching; to wit, me prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the hierarchs,
the hermits, the saints, and the righteous. 

And the phrase, "She hath killed her beasts," denotes the prophets and
martyrs who in every city and country are slain like sheep every day by
the unbelieving, in behalf of the truth, and cry aloud, "For thy sake we
are killed all the day long, we were counted as sheep for the
slaughter."

And again, "She hath mingled her wine" in the bowl, by which is meant,
that the Savior, uniting his Godhead, like pure wine, with the flesh in
the Virgin, was born of her at once God and man without confusion of the
one in the other.

"And she hath furnished her table:" that denotes the promised knowledge
of the Holy Trinity; it also refers to His honored and undefiled body
and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially
at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and
ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper. 

And again, "She hath sent forth her servants:" Wisdom, that is to say,
has done so-- Christ, to wit -- summoning them with lofty announcement. 

"Whoso is simple, Let him turn to me," she says, alluding manifestly to
the holy apostles, who traversed the whole world, and called the nations
to the knowledge of Him in truth, with their lofty and divine preaching.


And again, "And to those that want understanding she said"-- that is, to
those who have not yet obtained the power of the Holy Ghost -- "Come,
eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you;" by
which is meant, that He gave His divine flesh and honored blood to us,
to eat and to drink it for the remission of sins.

St Hippolytus of Rome, On Proverbs

Priest Seraphim Holland 2009.       HYPERLINK "http://www.orthodox.net/"
 St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, McKinney, Texas 

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-vespers.html 

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